The present invention relates to pump apparatus, and more particularly to improving performance of pump apparatus that use bladed devices.
Most automotive engines, when altered to produce more power, or worked harder than originally designed for, generate more heat from the internal combustion process than the original stock cooling system was designed to disperse into the surrounding air. The increased engine operating temperature requires more water flow through the engine block in gallons per minute at low speeds than the stock water pump was designed to produce. The addition of the disk kit described below to the stock water pump impeller doubles the water flow rate at low speeds. The doubling of the water flow rate provides enough gallons per minute to prevent overheating in performance enhanced or overloaded engines.
The increase of the water flow rate lowers the engine operating temperature by exposing more gallons of engine coolant per minute to the air passing through the engine radiator. The increased coolant flow rate keeps the temperature of the engine from exceeding the manufacturer""s safe operational limits during periods of low speed/high load operation.
Low speed overheating is a common problem experienced by xe2x80x98hot rodsxe2x80x99, high performance cars, recreational vehicles, forklifts, police cars, mobile welding units, cars and or light duty trucks towing trailers, emergency vehicles, and older vehicles with partially restricted cooling systems that are no longer able to pass enough water through the engine block to transfer the heat of engine combustion to the air passing through the radiator efficiently enough to keep the engine temperature from increasing beyond that recommended by the manufacturer even under normal operating conditions.
When driving at highway speeds of 60 or 70 miles per hour, or roughly 2,000 to 2,500 engine rotations per minute (rpm), a typical water pump moves approximately 30 gallons of coolant per minute through the engine block and radiator to keep the engine temperature within safe operating limits. At idle (700 to 900 rpm) the same water pump only moves 5 to 6 gallons per minute through the engine and radiator. As long as there is little or no strain on the engine at these low speeds a water flow rate one fifth that found at normal highway speeds is able to adequately cool the engine.
With a heavy load on the engine at low rpm typical of a vehicle towing a loaded trailer up a long grade, or a high power xe2x80x98hot rodxe2x80x99 idling in traffic, or a fork lift repeatedly lifting heavy loads at low engine speeds, the quantity of heat generated by the combustion of fuel inside the engine is more than can be transferred by 5 or 6 gallons of water per minute to the radiator for cooling. As a result the water temperature increases until it boils, or until a stable equilibrium temperature higher than the manufacturers recommended operating temperature of the engine is reached.
Previously, the only way to increase the gallons per minute output of a stock vehicle water pump was to replace the stock pump with a custom made xe2x80x98racingxe2x80x99 or high output xe2x80x98heavy dutyxe2x80x99 water pump, or remove the stock water pump and have it rebuilt by a specialized re-manufacturer with a higher output impeller. Either method is more expensive and time consuming than simply altering the existing water pump impeller in such a way as to double the water flow rate without damaging the life expectancy of the pump or incurring much expense installing the impeller conversion disk kit.
A completely new self-contained high flow rate water pump impeller could be installed in place of the stock water pump impeller, but the installation requires the forceful removal of the original press fit impeller and the press fit reinstallation of the new impeller. The equipment required to do impeller replacement properly is expensive and time consuming and unavailable to the vast majority of professional and amateur mechanics and drastically reduces the life expectancy of the rebuilt water pump due to the heavy strain the process imparts to the water pump bearings, seals, support shaft concentricity and surrounding pump body casting integrity. A water pump that starts out with a life time warranty generally ends up with a 90 day warranty after rebuilding due to the known statistical degradation of its mechanical integrity. What is needed is a quick and inexpensive way to increase a pump""s performance that requires no specialized tooling and can be performed by all professional and amateur mechanics.
The present invention addresses the needs above as well as others.
The present invention addresses the above and other needs by providing a pump performance disk kit comprising an impeller disk having a plurality of impeller disk blades extending at angles from a planar surface of the impeller disk such that when the impeller disk is attached on top of an impeller of a pump the total number of blades for use by the pump, and thus the performance, is increased. An anticavitation disk is also provided for attachment on top of the impeller disk to eliminate the cavitation caused by coolant spilling out the open face of the pump stock impeller by blocking off the open spaces between the blades.